My radiator blew one day and the truck overheated. I pulled over, popped the hood, and water/coolant was all over everything. Got towed, got a new radiator and my truck ran crappy ever since. We figured maybe some stuff got shorted some plugs got fouled, blah, blah, blah. So we changed the plugs(which looked fine), changed the coil packs(which tested fine), got new cables(no change). Starting to hear water sloshing noises when ever the heater is turned on. Anyways, changed the timing belt, water pump, thermostat, checked/changed the oil(no water in the oil/oil in the water). new idler bearings/tensioner. New camshaft/crankshaft pos sensor. Cleaned MAF sensor. Whenever I turn the heater on I get white smoke/steam coming from the tail pipe. Turn the heater off no smoke no steam. It smells like burnt electrical. Is it the heater radiator or the heater core? Next step is to change the injectors. Was also getting random miss fires on cylinder 3 and 4, but only 4 as of late. Any ideas?

 

Are you burning coolant?

What engine? 22RE, etc.

 

head gasket

 

5vzfe 3.4L Yes, its burning coolant. But its weird because the problem is only there when I turn the heater knob to hot instead of cold. I know it opens some valve when you do that. I also have a pending fault for a misfire in #4 again. Idles rough.

 

Prior overheat + white smoke + burning coolant + idle rough = head gasket failure at a minimum. Have you done any HG diagnostics i.e. leak down test, radiator pressure test, etc. ?

Due to the overheat, there may be head damage that the machine shop will identify one the heads are puilled.

There are threads here and elsewhere on 5vz-fe rebuilds.
Good luck.

 

I bet if you pull that plug that it is nice and clean like it was just steam cleaned.